Malcolm X’s grandson killed during robbery

Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of political activist Malcolm X, was killed in Mexico during an apparent robbery, his family’s spiritual adviser, friends and Islamic associations said.

Shabazz family publicist Terrie Williams confirmed the death but offered no further details. The State Department would say only that a US citizen had been killed in Mexico City on Thursday and that it was withholding further comment at the family’s request.

Shabazz had a turbulent childhood and adolescence. His mother, Qubilah Shabazz, was indicted on charges of plotting to kill the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who some suspected was involved in Malcolm X’s assassination. Qubilah Shabazz was Malcolm X’s second daughter.

In light of his mother’s legal and personal troubles, Shabazz was placed at a young age in the custody of Betty Shabazz, his grandmother and Malcolm X’s widow.

On Jun 1, 1997, Shabazz, then 12, set a fire in his grandmother’s Yonkers, New York, apartment that left the woman critically injured. She died later that month from those injuries.

Shabazz pleaded guilty to setting the blaze and was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention for manslaughter and arson. That sentence could be re-evaluated every year until he turned 18.

He got out after four years, but two years later, aged 18, he landed in prison on a charge of attempted robbery.

’According to the records, I’m diagnosed with so many things,’ Shabazz told The New York Times in an interview at the time. ‘I hear voices, I hear things, I’m schizophrenic, I’m manic-depressive. I wouldn’t be sitting here this calm if those things were true.’